it’s all but certain that Governor Inslee will be running for President—in no small part because he wants to address the issue of climate change.

He’s off to a pretty good start; he’s pledged not to take any fossil fuel money—which means, among other things, that unlike nearly every other Washington State politician, he won’t be taking a dime from Puget Sound Energy.

But if he wants to be a climate champion, he’s got to show that he understands that we need transformation…now.

What does “transformation” mean? We have to stop doing the bad stuff immediately (so, no new fossil fuel infrastructure, and only truly sustainable forestry), greatly intensify the good stuff (fight hard for transformational and justice-focused solutions now and in the near term), and hold the bad guys accountable (sue the industry for climate mitigation and recovery).

These three strands make a rope that might let us avoid widespread catastrophe. How would a climate champion start to weave those strands?

<climate champ graphic here, but for this one I’d cut off the title, and have only the checklist>

We’d like nothing more than for Jay Inslee to be a climate champion, and inject that critical conversation into the presidential election. But we’re not going to greenwash it: this is the governor who praised the Our Children’s Trust kids and the decision affirming their right to science-based targets….and then, just six weeks later, appealed the case. He’s the governor who supported the Kalama methanol plant until it was clear that it was attracting widespread resistance.

He’s also the governor who has remained silent on the Tacoma LNG facility...but tacitly supporting fracked gas is not compatible with being a climate champion.

So we’ll be doing our best to push the governor to be his best self. We’ll make it clear we know what it means to be a climate champion, and we expect him to level up.